Police patrol western Indian state after religious rioting

Posted: Sunday, March 17, 2002

Harish DesaiThe Associated Press

AHMADABAD, India - Police banned large gatherings and patrolled streets in parts of a western Indian state Saturday, after religious rioting linked to a Hindu ceremony in another part of the country killed at least three people.

In other unrest connected to the controversial ceremony, Hindu nationalists wielding sticks and tridents stormed the state legislature building in an eastern state Saturday, scuffling with guards and trashing offices. Police arrested nearly 100 activists.

Still, the violence was on a far smaller scale than officials had feared. Authorities had worried riots could erupt across the country over the long-planned ceremony by Hindu nationalists in the northern town of Ayodhya.

The activists want to begin construction of a temple to the god Rama on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque torn down by Hindus in 1992. Muslims strongly oppose the project.

A last-minute compromise defused tensions Friday over the ceremony, in which the nationalists had hoped to dedicate the first two pillars for the temple near the ruins. They agreed instead to hand the pillars over to the government for safekeeping, and their parade of hundreds of praying, chanting Hindus stayed at least 11/2 miles from the closed-off ruins Friday.

The Hindu-Muslim dispute over Ayodhya was behind violence that exploded last month in western Gujarat state, killing 700 people.

Violence continued there Friday, when Hindus gathered for prayers in conjunction with the Ayodhya ceremony, then rioted in several towns. Hindus burned down a mosque and destroyed two Muslim tombs in the town of Baroda.

Two people were fatally shot by police, another was stabbed to death, and 26 people were injured in fighting in Baroda and Ahmadabad, the state's commercial center, police said.

On Saturday, authorities banned public gatherings of more than four people in many parts of Baroda and three other towns.

"We are keeping a close watch on Gujarat," Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told the Indian Parliament in the capital, New Delhi.

On Saturday, Hindus from a rally of nearly 500 temple supporters stormed the state legislature building in Bhubaneshwar, capital of eastern Orissa state, and ransacked several offices, including chambers of some ministers. At least two assembly guards were injured in the scuffle with activists carrying wooden sticks and tridents, a traditional Hindu symbol. Police arrested nearly 100 people.

Vajpayee called for Hindu-Muslim dialogue to work out a solution to the claims over the holy site. "We have to resolve the Ayodhya dispute, because this is becoming an obstacle to communal harmony in the country," he said.

Hindu nationalists who tore down the 16th-century Babri mosque claim that it was built by medieval Muslim rulers on the site of Rama's birth. Muslims want to rebuild the mosque, and a dispute over ownership of the site has been pending for years.

The government has asked the Supreme Court to settle the dispute quickly, and Vajpayee told Parliament on Saturday that the pillars would be used to build a temple only if the court rules in favor of Hindus.